joshuamurphy

We have all been there, the endless client meeting in which you have fantasies of reaching across the table, grabbing the back of your dopey clients head and smashing their face in to the conference room table repeatedly, letting out a guttural scream and storming out of the office straight to the nearest bar to start your life “off the grid”.

God knows I have sat through a countless number of these meetings and for years had the same result. I would give my opinion, only to be overruled by the marketing director (or equivalent retard sent in his place) explaining to me that “User navigation doesn’t really matter anyway”. Me putting on my best smile and letting said douchebag know how brilliant I think they are for coming up with such a great idea. Finishing up the meeting feeling defeated, frustrated and questioning why the FUCK I am in this business anyway. Heading to the nearest bar, thinnking of all the things I “should have said” and planning my new life “off the grid”.

It was not until a few years ago that I realized that being a designer does not have to mean losing your mind every time you hear from a client or have to present a new concept or design.

When I first started in this business, I was cocky, over confident and had quite the hot head when it came to clients and what they “thought they wanted”. I got away with most of my insane behavior because the client did not have much choice but to deal with me because there was not a great number of people that could do what I did. Those days are gone, along with my hot headedness and cocky attitude. I have traded those in for a more refined and confident approach to dealing with clients and projects. Nowadays clients have a seemingly endless number of small agencies as well as freelance designers to choose from who can do amazing work.

Because of this, my “Rockstar” attitude has (thankfully) been doused with a sense of reality and given me the ability to actually win more clients over and have my design or concept chosen way more often than they were in the past.

Here are some ways that you can win over your clients and change their minds without getting fired.

Be incredibly knowledgeable.
Knowledge is power my friends, the more of it you have, the better your meetings will go. Learn everything you can about the “reason’s” you are making design decisions and be able to back them up with hard facts. Be able to quote famous designers and UI experts. Have statistical facts about browsers, resolution, user habits, demographics, and the like memorized and ready to go at the drop of a hat. This will let your clients know that you know what you are talking about and are not just another socially retarded “artist”.

Be confident.
Contrary to popular belief most meetings are actually just pissing contests, especially with males. No one wants to admit it, but if you appear weak or unconfident, you will be walked over for the sake of being walked over, no matter how good your ideas are. So be ready to exert a quiet confidence and know that every meeting is a small battle to establish intellectual dominance, no matter how nice the client is. Look your clients in the eyes when talking about your ideas, speak in a clear and audible voice and avoid jargon AT ALL COSTS. Speak English to your clients and don’t try dazzle them with your knowledge of industry terminology. They don’t give a fuck about grids, jquery, css or LOL catz so leave that shit out.

Be Prepared.
There is nothing worse than going in to a client meeting to present new designs and having to fuck around with your laptop for 15 min while you look like an incompetent fool, trying to make jokes about “damn technology”. Your clients time is very valuable and showing them that you understand by being prepared makes you more professional, authoritative and more likely to win your clients respect when it comes time to make a decision. Have your meeting room clean with bottled water and snacks in the middle of the table. Erase all scribbles off the white board and have a clean and creative meeting space. Set relaxing lighting and avoid florescent lights and stark white walls, these things will immediately put anyone in a bad mood.

Be Concise.
Most clients are already overworked and over stressed and the last thing on earth they want is to listen to their designer (who they already think is overpaid) babble on about how “cool” things are. Clients want to see what you have done for them and they want to know how it will improve their business. Period. One of the MOST IMPORTANT things you can do in a client meeting to win them over to your design is to tell them how they are going to make more money with your designs. Get to this point as soon as you can in your presentation. Don’t waste time talking about how cool you think your concept is. Talk to them about ease of use, increased numbers and how it will put money in their pockets.

Be Dazzling.
Everyone likes a little pizzazz, but too much and you will look like a dummy who is all show and no go, effectively losing your clients respect. That means when you are trying to convince them to go with your design or layout, they will not take you as a serious professional, but more as an overpaid monkey that bangs the keys when told. If you need to, take some public speaking classes to get more comfortable speaking in front of a group.

Kill ‘em with kindness.
You will find that if you are an open minded and generally nice person, clients will be more open to your suggestions. If you immediately dismiss their ideas or correct them on everything they say, they will go on the defensive and stop listening to you, no matter how good your ideas are. Say things like “that is a fantastic idea, we could also” and “I like where you’re going with this, you should be doing my job”. Try and be charming and down to earth. Most clients are already envious of your job and letting them know you are just a regular person and not a high and mighty artist will put them at ease and make them more open to your ideas.

Stroke their egos.
We all know that stoking someone’s ego is an invaluable tool in disarming them. From the get go, let the client know how much fun their project is, how it’s super awesome and everyone had so much fun working on it. Let them know they are an awesome client and you are really looking forward to working on many more projects with them. Try regaling them with a quick joke about something fun that happened with the project as you were working on it. This will put the client at ease and make them think (weather it’s true or not) that they have an awesome product or service that people like. There is nothing worse than having to deal with a business that is having problems or losing money and on top of that getting the feeling that even your agency or design team thinks your product or service is stupid.

Get your team on your side – Have a “pre-meeting” meeting.
Now, I know what you are thinking, who the FUCK wants to have more meetings, but if you do this, the results will be shocking to you. Considering EVERYONE is a critic, there is NOTHING worse than having your team scoff at your concepts in front of a client. This is will immediately discredit you as a confident professional. If you have someone on your team that does this to you, if you can, FIRE THEM, if you can’t, make SURE to get them on your side before your next client meeting as they are doing more damage to your credibility and reputation that you can possible imagine.

Prove it.
If you have a client that is balking at the ideas you have presented, give them the option (with confidence) to test your way against their way, provided you have the time and bandwidth to do it. if you are truly confident that your way will win out and make them more money, PROVE IT. I guarantee you that the next time a decision comes up, you will have the final say on what goes on. This can also backfire on you and put you in a position to never give advice again, so be ABSOUTLY sure before you evoke this measure.

Be Passionate.
People LOVE passion. It is more contagious than the swine flu and ten times as rewarding. Turn in to one of the reverends you see on late night TV preaching the gospel. Make your designs in to the absolute truth that cannot be argued with. If you are passionate about your work, it will put your client at ease and may even help them to go with your concept purely because they were caught up in the moment.

Be invaluable.
This is a very important tool in getting new clients to go with your concepts. Show them what you have done for other clients. Show them how you have helped increase the bottom line, retain customers or generally helped another company with some kind of problem with your genius. If you have no proof you are going to have to be open to their comments and take them in to consideration until you get some more experience under your belt.

Never let them see you sweat.
If you make a mistake, or say something stupid, regain your composure immediately if possible. Most clients are just waiting for the chance to disprove your ideas and input their own and will jump at the chance to show you up, especially if their boss is in the meeting. Try disarming these people with kindness and maybe a few jokes to let them know that you are not trying to show them up. Be polite and humble to everyone in the room. Self deprecation is an amazingly effective disarming tool.

Meet clients on your turf.
Home field advantage is very important. Bringing suits in to your creative studio will put them at ease. It will make you more comfortable and letting them see you in your environment is a priceless physiological tool. Having a creative work space is equally effective for clients as it is for you or your staff. Everyone loves creativity and most people hate their jobs, so giving them a reason to come to your cool space and get out of the daily grind of their cubicle laden, florescent lit office hell hole is invaluable to your relationship and your clients mood during meetings.

Remember your audience.
We all know that 99% of the time, clients are just dead wrong with what they want. They are generally the furthest thing from experts in their field and they MOST CERENTLY do not understand design, usability or how creativity works the way you do. Part of your job as a designer or a presenter is to not only do great work, but to sell that work as well. Because let’s face it, if you can’t convince a client to go with your concept, you are not going to get very far in this business. Remember to speak to your clients in terms THEY will understand. Hit your talking points of how you are going to help THEM as soon as possible. Let them know you are here to help them, but you are the authority when it comes to what users want. Remind them ( in a nice way ) that you are an expert in your field. Don’t argue with your clients when they talk about what they are experts in and you should get the same respect.

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I hope that you have found this article helpful. I know that clients can be a nightmare to deal with and if they were all easy, this industry would not be nearly as challenging or rewarding. Keep fighting the good fight, but maybe enlisting some of these tools will help you hit a few less landmines than I did along my path.

I would LOVE your feedback and any other tips you might have as I am always looking to expand my own knowledge as well as ways to win over clients.

It is 4:00 in the morning and I have already been up for an hour.

I barely slept last night and unfortunately that is nothing new. It is cold in my apartment this morning and my heater is just not able to warm my bones. So as I sit here huddled over my keyboard sipping coffee with desk lamp the only light on in my apartment, I have to some time to think. What I have found myself thinking a lot about lately is social media, “transparency” and business.

There is something that is not sitting right with me about this whole social media thing. How can business, which is by its very nature immoral, secretive, cold and untrustworthy, suddenly be participating in a space where the very foundation is transparency, community, openness and honesty? How can businesses that have screwed over their competitors, fired thousands of people, caused environmental harm, lied to their investors, employed slave labor and have generally had a negative impact on our society now be given the opportunity to trick us again in to thinking that they are all of a sudden “transparent” because they have a twitter account and a facebook page?

 What makes you think that the fundamentals of business have changed because it’s now online and suddenly been labeled “transparent”?